Beneficial effects of BMP7 in spinal cord injury

[Kofi]

I wonder if this effect runs through vitamin D3?

Neurosci Lett. 2009 Nov 20;465(3):226-9. Epub 2009 Sep 17.
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Neuroprotective effects of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) treatment
after spinal cord injury.
de Rivero Vaccari JP, Marcillo A, Nonner D, Dietrich WD, Keane RW.
Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of
Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, United States.

Bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) has been shown to ameliorate reduced
dendritic growth induced by glutamate excitotoxicity in neuronal tissue
cultures and/or provide an enhancement of functional recovery in central
nervous system (CNS) injury. BMP7 expression is modulated by spinal cord
injury (SCI), but the molecular mechanisms involved in neuroprotection
have not been clearly defined. Here, we show that BMP7 treatment of rats
subjected to mild cervical SCI significantly increased the pro-survival
mitogen-activated protein kinase-38 (MAPK-38) pathway and levels of
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 1 (NMDAR-1) resulting in a significant
increase in neuronal sparing in the ventral horn of the spinal cord.
Moreover, BMP7 was neuroprotective against glutamate-mediated
excitotoxicity in cultured cortical neurons. These studies show that
BMP7 administration may be used as a therapeutic strategy to reduce the
damaging excitotoxic effects following SCI.
Publication Types:
* Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

PMID: 19765637